Opera

ANDRÉ GRÉTRY
Amphitryon (full opera score with French libretto and appendix)

Opera in 3 acts

André Ernest Modeste Grétry was born on February 8, 1741 in Liège, Belgium. He learned keyboard and composition during his childhood under the tutelage of Jean-Pantaléon Leclerc, Nicolas Rennekin, and Henri Moreau. He saw various Italian operas in his youth, leading to his decision to pursue composition as an adult, studying under Giovanni Battista Casali. During and following his training in composition, he met, worked with, and befriended many other composers and celebrities, most notably including François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire.

Amphitryon is an opera written by Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known by his stage name Molière, with the music composed by Grétry. The opera’s premiere was at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in Paris on January 13, 1668. The opera calls for a total of 14 roles: Jupiter, Mercury, Amphitryon, Argatiphontidas, Cleanthis, Naucrates, Polidas, Posicles, Sosie, Blepharo, Alcmena, Bromia, Thessala, and an unspecified actor role utilized for extra roles. This is considered higher than the typical number of roles in an opera, which usually ranges from 7–10. The story of Amphitryon is based on the Roman version of a Greek myth, written by Titus Maccius Plautus. The opera is scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, violins, viola, cello, contrabass, piano, timpani, and a vocal ensemble. There are a total of 3 acts and a prologue, with differing acts of the opera consisting of slightly different instrumentation for reasons unknown. …

Orchestra

Choir/Voice & Orchestra

GROSZ, WILHELM
Liebeslieder Op.10 for a high voice and chamber orchestra

Wilhelm Grosz was an Austrian composer, arranger, conductor, musical director, musicologist, and pianist born in Vienna on August 11, 1894. Grosz grew up in the early twentieth-century Austrian musical landscape, which witnessed the rise of atonality with the works of composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg. Because of this, he is credited as one of the first Austrian composers to compose jazz-inspired classical compositions. His musical education was extensive, as he received his PhD in musicology at the Vienna University in 1920, and won the Zusner Prize in 1917.

At the time of composing Liebeslieder in 1922, Grosz was partaking in a music festival in Salzburg with esteemed film composer Erich Korngold, who was also his childhood friend. Liebeslieder is a good example of Grosz’s abilities as a musicologist because it showcases love songs from non-Austrian cultures. The five poems upon which the movements are based are from Serbia, Russia, Magyar, Tunis (capital of Tunisia), and Russia again, respectively. Grosz loved these types of multiple movement works as shown in his Tanzsuite, op. 20, no. 2, where he explores a number of dances from all over the world. …

Solo Organ

HVOSLEF, KETIL
Organ Works Vol. 3: Chiese di Roma (‘Churches of Rome’ / first print)

CHIESE DI ROMA:

1 – Santa Cecilia – alla memoria d’una santa decapitata
2 – San Clemente – livelli della fede
3 – San Ignazio – l’illusione della prospettiva
4 – La Chiesa di Quattro Coronati – l’oratorio di San Silvestro

First performance: Mariakirken, Bergen, June 19th. 2019 / Karstein Askeland

Ketil Hvoslef was born in Bergen on July 19th 1939. He is the youngest son of Harald Sæverud and Marie Hvoslef. He arrived at a propitious time, since his birth coincided with the completion of Siljustøl, the great mansion in the outskirts of Bergen where the Sæverud family settled and where his father lived until his passing in 1992. It also proved to be a haven during the Nazi invasion of Norway in the Second World War.

Being the son of a great composer, music was naturally very present during his upbringing. He learned to play the piano and the viola and, in his teens, he became heavily involved in Bergen’s jazz and pop music environment, becoming a member of what was, reportedly, Bergen’s first rock band. Hvoslef (who retained the Sæverud surname until his 40th birthday, when he decided to adopt that of his mother) had, however, plans to become a painter and took serious steps in that direction. It was in the Bergen Art Academy that he met the painter Inger Bergitte Flatebø (1938 – 2008), who would become his wife and adopt the Sæverud surname.

With the birth of their first child, Trond, in 1962, Hvoslef realized that he needed to provide for his family and, abandoning his dreams to become either a pop star or a painter he took an organist’s diploma at the Bergen Music Conservatoire. Upon finishing his studies, he was offered a position as theory teacher at the Conservatoire by its director, the legendary Gunnar Sævig (1924 – 1969) …